13' Dinghy Placement on my Selene 53

I have a Selene 53 with a dinghy on the top deck. The boat is being painted and I was thinking their has to be a better place than up top to place the dinghy. My idea was to turn the top deck into a sun deck instead of creating clutter with the dink up there. I can leave the hoist in place since that doesn't take much space. I have a swim platform but the dink may be to large for it. Any ideas???????

Any ideas???????

Davits that are a snap to use , will be used often.

This is great to deter dink thieves, The aft dink is also great as a garbage holding area.

Lots of volume , less aroma.

Big hassle is the $5.00 a foot of LOA overnight docking charges.

I had a similar problem on a smaller scale and didn't want my view from the cockpit obstructed.

I urge you to make it work but a 13' Whaler is going to be a struggle to mount on the back of any boat.

The extra space might be worth going with a smaller but capable dinghy.

jsbraga said:

I have a Selene 53 with a dinghy on the top deck. The boat is being painted and I was thinking their has to be a better place than up top to place the dinghy. My idea was to turn the top deck into a sun deck instead of creating clutter with the dink up there. I can leave the hoist in place since that doesn't take much space. I have a swim platform but the dink may be to large for it. Any ideas???????

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Your side access doors are pretty high to enter and exit from on a regular basis, unless you carry a step for the dock. Cluttering up the swim platform with a Davit system to deploy and recover the dink will render that access difficult at best, Not to mention the added weight on the stern.
We have towed the dink on short travels, but that can be a pain when docking in tight quarters. And storage on deck reduces dink theft. Wish I had a nice davit crane instead of the boom and winches.

Cheers

"might be worth going with a smaller but capable dinghy."

What comes close to a 13 ft whaler in capability?

8.5' inflatable with electric motor on weaver davits............ I'd stay with the upper deck solution myself, too much sun is not good for you anyway...

jsbraga said:

I have a swim platform but the dink may be to large for it. Any ideas???????

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I had a 48' yacht fisher with a top mounted davit. It was a giant PITA to use frequently so I understand your displeasure with your present set-up. My present boat has a bow mounted davit which also is a PITA! Can't launch the dinghy with the big boat bow in or stern in! I have to literally back the boat out of the slip to deal with the dinghy. Currently, the dinghy is parked right behind my cruiser an tied & locked to the swim step. Much better but still a pain to move it elswhere when wanting to use the cruiser. After much study and viewing others solutions, I'm convinced that I'm going the route of a swim step mounted davit with double arms. (Yes, I know it will limit my trolling capability which I don't do much of these days anyhow.)

Both the Nick Jackson & Roskelly/OLsson companies make stern mounted davits in 500 & 1000 lb capacities.

I'm convinced that "all things considered", stern mounts are the way to go. (I'll bet the 1000 pound model will handle your 13 footer with no problem.)

https://www.nickjacksonco.com/

Depending on your swim step size & weight capacity, a "compression mount" will definitely work.


Builders of Boat Davits - Pioneers of Transom Davit Technology

We have a Selene 47 and were frustrated by the hoist and boom arrangement. My solution was to install this stern davit made by Tanner Mfg.

nwboater said:

We have a Selene 47 and were frustrated by the hoist and boom arrangement. My solution was to install this stern davit made by Tanner Mfg. View attachment 89489

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Excellent!

On our 42 OA I had the swimstep davit in the picture above. I found that it limited egress off the boat but more importantly up here in the rain country it allowed the dingy to fill with water. even with drain plug out there still would be a considerably amount of water in the bottom. If I had to do over again I would consider seawise davits... that is unless you find yourself in large following seas.... Every dingy storage system has it pluses and minuses... find the one for you that has the most pluses.

FF said:

"might be worth going with a smaller but capable dinghy."

What comes close to a 13 ft whaler in capability?

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11' livingston would probably be closest but the 13' Whaler is kind of in it's own league..

That league is a very heavy one though. I'll admit i'd have a hard time going down in size too but I also wouldn't want a dinghy stored on the deck.

jsbraga said:

I have a Selene 53 with a dinghy on the top deck. The boat is being painted and I was thinking their has to be a better place than up top to place the dinghy. My idea was to turn the top deck into a sun deck instead of creating clutter with the dink up there. I can leave the hoist in place since that doesn't take much space. I have a swim platform but the dink may be to large for it. Any ideas???????

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How long is your swim platform? On my 44, my transom is just over 12', so my Caribe 12 fits, but occupies the full width. I extended my swim platform from 20" to 33" several years ago, but the davits position the 6'wide dinghy in very close to the transom, so a direct drop would land firmly on the swim platform. I had to get creative and have a pair of ramps that I place at the base of the davit supports, so the dinghy has a 45° slope to slide down, in order to clear the outer edge of the swim platform. This adds less than a minute to deployment time, but must be done.
I have observed the launching of a 12' dinghy, also 6' wide, on a Canoe Cove 42 with its standard width swim platform. The Nick Jackson davits used permit the operator to push the dinghy outward so that it will clear the outer edge of the swim platform, and the reverse of that procedure must be used to recover the dinghy.
My own dinghy came from a Seawise system, so I had to do the repairs to the fibreglass where its weight proved to be too much for sideways mounting. I suspect my Caribe weighs far less than a BW 13, so I doubt that option is available to you.
Let us all know what you come up with.

Not A Whaler Dinghy

I’m not sure where the idea of my dink being a Whaler started, but its a Walker Bay 360 with a Honda 40 Horse. The dink weighs 485#’s and the Honda 225#’s. One point made earlier is losing the use of the swim platform and actually having to board the dink from either side. As everything is bouncing around the side boarding is impossible. Too high, and the the dink is bouncing off what is a freshly painted surface. Also stepping down and into it is very dangerous. It looks like we need to keep it up top. However I’m still a solution minded person so any more ideas are welcomed. I do want my top deck clear if I can have my cake and eat it also.

jsbraga said:

I’m not sure where the idea of my dink being a Whaler started, but its a Walker Bay 360 with a Honda 40 Horse. The dink weighs 485#’s and the Honda 225#’s. One point made earlier is losing the use of the swim platform and actually having to board the dink from either side. As everything is bouncing around the side boarding is impossible. Too high, and the the dink is bouncing off what is a freshly painted surface. Also stepping down and into it is very dangerous. It looks like we need to keep it up top. However I’m still a solution minded person so any more ideas are welcomed. I do want my top deck clear if I can have my cake and eat it also.

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If you are like me, when you need the swimgrid to be clear, your dinghy will be in the water, so it won't be a problem.
Also, if you have a gate in your rail and steps down the transom, those can be relocated to the side that is usually nearest the dock, then you don't need the whole swimgrid to be clear. If you have a molded in door to the swimgrid, relocation is just more expensive, but can still be done. I have seen this approach work out well on a West Bay Sonship 58 that began life without side doors and now has doors on both sides of the cockpit.

We are in the process of investigating this exact problem. We do not want our dinghy up top because it is a PITA to launch and we use our dinghy a lot. We want the same thing... to open up the flybridge area for seating and to create a more convenient way to launch our 10'4" dinghy. We are hoping our swim platform/transom will be able to handle the weight and that the davit system will still allow us to board via the swim platform gate when the dinghy is off the davit. This is a great reason to have this Selene forum!